Reassurance
by RainbowFang
Summary: Slight slash: Ironhide/Ratchet-"Just be careful, okay? I worry over you too much for my own good."  "I always am, Ratchet, you know that. That's how I'm still here, after all these years."
1. Repairs

**Reassurance: The Action That Speaks Louder Than Words  
**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Just the OC characters.**

**Warning: Contains slash, smut, crack, randomness, and possible OOC-ness.  
**

**Chapter 1: Repairs**

* * *

Ironhide rolled to dodge a shot from Starscream's arm cannon. The heat of the blast was enough to cause his sensors to warn him of partially melted armor on his shoulder. He growled in anger, and took aim at the seeker. His cannon whirred, and shuddered as the blast was fired. It zipped through the air, and slammed into the seeker's chest. It was too low to take out his spark, but it still did considerable damage, the kind that would take awhile to heal. Starscream howled in pain, and clutched at his chest. He called a hasty retreat, and flew off, taking a few shots while he did so. The Decepticons fled, leaving the remaining Autobots once again in a small victory. Ironhide smirked, and his cannons stopped whirring. His battle mask snapped open, and he walked to help any fallen Autobots get back to base.

* * *

Time found him in the med bay back at base later, awaiting repairs from Ratchet.

"All right, just don't do that again," Ratchet said, helping Bluestreak off of the surgical berth, having just reattached his right arm. Blue nodded, not talking for once. He walked slowly out of the med bay, sparing a glance for Ironhhide. The black mech nodded to the smaller mech, and stood up from his spot on the floor. Ratchet came up to him, and shook his head. "What the slag did you do this time, Ironhide? Get shot by a Decepticon?" he asked, knowing full well that was what happened.

Ironhide snorted. "What does it look like, _medic_?" he taunted, glaring down at him.

Ratchet smirked, and grabbed his injured arm, and yanked him harshly up to the metal berth. "Get on, slagger. I've got work to do, all thanks to you." Ironhide growled, but didn't take the bait. He instead reluctantly hopped onto the berth, and lay down on his back. Ratchet probed and poked at the melted armor, making Ironhide wince in pain as the errors grew in numbers. He grimaced. "I'll have to totally replace this armor. It's _slagged_." Ironhide groaned.

"Great, that's just what I need."

Ratchet smacked his helm, and growled. "Shut up, I'm just trying to help you, idiot." Ironhide growled back at him in annoyance, but complied and offlined the sensors in his shoulder area. The pain disappeared, and he sighed in relief.

"Thank Primus, anyway. It was getting a little too thin for my taste."

Ratchet rolled his optics, and began to tear out the destroyed armor and cables, along with some wiring. He walked over to the storage room after he had finished, and grabbed up some raw military grade benvalium armor metal.

He walked back to the berth, and began the tedious process of cutting and fitting the new armor, along with the new cables and wires.

After he was finished, the new bare metal was in place, shining after his buff job. He let Ironhide sit up, and online his sensors to test the connections. The black mech nodded as they reported that nothing was wrong. "Good. Now I'll just bang out your dents, and repaint you. Then you'll be just as good as you'll ever be," Ratchet stated.

Ironhide groaned. "I hate this part," he said, as Ratchet reached for the largest dent first. He reached under the plating, and popped it back into place with his strong fingers, and a small hammer from under his arm. Ironhide hissed in pain, but he knew he had to keep his sensors on, just in case Ratchet missed his target, and snapped some sensitive wires. "Primus, can't you ever be more gentle?" he questioned, after the hammer had hit a particularly sore spot.

Ratchet grunted. "And if I did, this would never get done. Primus knows how many times I've had to do this, and this is the best way to do it, so stuff it."

After all the dents were popped back out and buffed, Ratchet walked to his bench to grab up a canister of nanytes. He turned back to Ironhide, and stepped back up to the berth. "Here," he said, tossing the cylinder to Ironhide. "This is for your paint. Your reserves were melted in that blast, so you can have these." Ironhide nodded, and opened it, dumping the nanytes directly onto his chest. He shuttered his optics rapidly multiple times, as the feeling of them crawling under and over his armor, changing color and fixing minor damage, felt like little feathers tickling him. Ratchet observed him as the nanytes finally settled down and merged with his armor. He nodded. "That's good, they're doing their job. Here, I'll help you up," he observed, stepping closer to the black mech, and gently pulling him up off of the berth. Ironhide grunted, and stood up. He looked at Ratchet with a smug look on his faceplate, and lifted an optic ridge. Ratchet's hand was still on his arm. Ratchet shrugged, and dropped it, rolling his optics. "You just be quiet. You're not the big stud you think yourself to be, old mech."

Ironhide made a noise of protest. "At least you're as old as me, Hatchet." Ratchet smacked the back of his helm at this, and Ironhide laughed. Then the medic's expression softened.

"Just be careful, okay? I worry over you too much for my own good." Ironhide shook his helm, and smiled. He lifted a hand to the medic's faceplate, and cupped his cheek.

"I always am, Ratchet, you know that. That's how I'm still here, after all these years." Ratchet sighed, and looked down at the floor. He glanced back up to Ironhide. The black mech smiled softly, and leaned down to kiss the medic. He sighed, and lifted his other hand to the smaller mech's back, pulling him closer. Ratchet also pulled him close, and touched his own lips back to the warrior. It was a sweet, quick kiss, before Ironhide broke it off, instead resting his chin on top of Ratchet's helm. They both sighed.

"You know, we hardly ever have any time anymore to get together like this," Ironhide whispered. Ratchet offlined his optics and put both of his arms on the black chest of his lover.

"Yeah."

* * *

Ironhide walked the halls of the base, bored and looking for a reason to use his famed cannons. Red Alert walked by, nodding tersely to the black mech. Ironhide grunted back to him, and continued walking. He walked past an open door, but something caught his optic. He backed up a few steps, and peered inside.

Jazz was on his berth, lying on his front, feet kicking in the air. Loud music was blasting from his speakers, and he was humming along, casually reading a data pad. Ironhide commed him.

**What in the pit are you doing, Jazz?**

The silver mech jerked his head up, and stared at Ironhide in the doorway. He grinned, and turned the music down. "Not much," he answered. Ironhide grunted.

"Can I come in? I'm bored."

Jazz nodded, and turned back to his data pad. Ironhide took a seat on the berth beside him. "What're you readin'?" Jazz moved it over so he could see. It was a digital book version of October Sky. Ironhide nodded. Jazz pulled it back to him. "Why're you reading it if you can just do it internally?" he asked, confused. Jazz looked up at him with an expression on his faceplate that clearly said, _Isn't it obvious?_

"It passes the time, and I prefer to read this way, anyway," Jazz responded. Ironhide rolled his optics.

"Whatever."

Jazz snorted, and went back to reading. Ironhide looked around the room. There was little for decoration, mainly due to the Autobots not having had enough time to collect stuff. There was the berth, a window, and a private wash rack through another door. All in all, not much. Ironhide felt a little sorry for Jazz. Back on Cybertron, he used to have the most paintings and metalwork out of all of them. He always had a stack of datapads in a corner, too, with music and literature on them.

"I bet you're bored, aren't you?" Jazz asked out of the blue. Ironhide grunted. Then he sighed.

"Yeah, and I'm trying to find something to do to get my processor off of my memories."

Jazz nodded sympathetically. "I know the feeling." Ironhide sighed, and shook his head.

"Not like mine."

* * *

Ratchet leaned against the berth, and sighed. He crossed his arms over his chest. "This is getting boring," he muttered, shaking his head. He had been just standing around in the med bay for a couple of hours, for once not being hailed on for repairs. He rubbed his face with a free hand, and sighed again. He looked up as the door opened. It was Sunstreaker, followed closely by Sideswipe. He sighed again. "Great," he grumbled. "I wanted action, and here it is." _'Just not in the way I wanted it,'_ he said to himself, thinking about a nicer clientele instead of the grumpy mech striding towards him. Sunstreaker growled, and marched up to the medic.

"Just fix this dent, please." He held up his arm. Ratchet shook his head, and growled back at him.

"Oh, do it yourself. I've had enough of your behavior."

Sunstreaker snorted, and backed up a step. "What's this? Our beloved Hatchet refusing to fix an injured mech?" Sideswipe made a small noise behind him, and waited by the door.

Ratchet stepped away from the berth, and glared into Sunny's optics. "Just shut up, and hold still."


	2. Rain

**Rescue: The Action That Saves Little Lives**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. Just the OC characters.**

**Warning: Contains slash, crack, randomness, and possible OOC characters. I have decided to not have ANY smut. Deal with it. I can't do that stuff anyways...**

**Chapter 2: Rain**

* * *

Ironhide stood by, observing the airmen move cargo and weapons around the tarmac. They milled around in a chaotic neatness that reminded him of Petro-Rabbits racing across Cybertron's metal turf, searching for objects to line their nests.

It suddenly amused him.

He watched them more closely, and was not surprised to see that they were all, indeed, in a hurry.

"There's a storm coming in, hurry up!"

"Roger that, Bill."

"I've got those M-41s you wanted..."

They shouted and talked, never stopping, never resting.

Ironhide smiled to himself. They were so afraid of their precious random objects getting wet, it made him want to tell someone how funny it was. However, he was one to keep to himself, so he left the comm. lines silent.

Then again, he couldn't quite place the reason for his amusement. Maybe he would tell someone, after all.

::Ratchet::

::Yes, Ironhide?::

::Come here, you should see this::

Then Ironhide cut off his transmission, and waited for his bond-mate to arrive.

A few drops of water started to fall, and the black mech felt them plink off of his armor, but just barely. It was a peculiar sensation. He looked up at the sky, just in time to see a flash of lightning seem to light the sky on fire. It was so much different here on Earth than on Cybertron, and not just because of the weather patterns. The dominate inhabitants, for one, were organic creatures, but they weren't the strongest, nor the most efficient. Ironhide lowered his gaze back down to the humans, only to discover that they were now shouting louder and faster, running as quick as they could to get the cargo to cover.

Ironhide stopped one young man by his voice. "Don't you humans know how to predict your weather patterns? Then if you had known this was coming, you could have planned accordingly."

The man looked up at him, and shrugged. "We do, but this hurricane came up pretty fast, and we just started loading up yesterday. Hopefully it will be just a small one."

Ironhide nodded to him, and the man ran off to help some more.

"What's the matter?" came Ratchet's voice from behind. Ironhide turned around and motioned the medic closer.

"Just watch the humans. I find it amusing."

Ratchet gave Ironhide one of his famous looks that said, _You sir, are stupid._

The black mech rolled his helm and optics together, blowing it off.

Ratchet shook his helm, and walked up to Ironhide's side, and began to observe and comment on the humans' behaviour.

"Why are those three trying to pull that, when it would be much more efficient to push?"

"He's going to throw out his back if he tries one more time to lift that."

"Where is she going with that cart of Flashbangs?"

"Why do they have those anyway..."

"If you would just look for the release brake, you would actually get somewhere."

"Ironhide, why are humans so..."

Ironhide snorted, giving Ratchet a sideways look. "Who cares? It's funny how they try so hard, only to realize they are doing it all wrong."

Ratchet shook his helm. "You make this out to be amusing, whereas I pity them their small brains."

Ironhide was about to respond, when a tapping on his right pede captured his attention.

"Ironhide, why aren't you helping these guys?"

It was Sam, holding something small in his arms. He was tapping with his foot.

"Because I might throw my back out."

Ratchet stopped his snort before he let it out, knowing this game.

"Yeah, right. You're _waaaaay_ too strong to do that, with this tiny stuff." Sam snorted.

Ironhide scowled. "Are you implying something, boy?"

Sam gulped, seeing that Trigger-Happy grin Ironhide was so famous for. "N-n-n-ooo-o, of course not, Mr. Ironhide," he squeaked. "I was just hoping you'd help, a-a-a-and stuff."

::Mr. Ironhide?::

::Shut up Ratchet::

::I think it suits you::

::Ugh::

"Do I look happy, _Mr._Witwicky?"

Sam _really_ didn't want to answer, but he just shook his head quickly 'no'.

Ironhide glared. "Do you _really_ want me to help?"

Sam gulped again, sweating now. He was just glad that 'Hide wasn't a 'Con. "M-m-m-maaaaa-aa-byeee?" Sam squeaked again, and turned to run off.

"Oh, hold on there, Sam!"

Ironhide snatched the teen up in his fingers, eliciting a scream from Sam.

"PLEASE DON'T KILL ME, PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEEE-eeeeeeee!" Sam's eyes teared up. He wished he'd just kept his mouth shut.

"I'm not gonna kill ya! Yeesh!" Ironhide said, making a noise something akin to a low chuckle.

Ratchet held back a snicker, as Sam's fear rose higher, no doubt from his imagination working hard at thinking of ways that the black mech was going to torture him.

::Scare him, why don't you:: Ratchet's tone was reprimanding.

::Really?::

::Idiot::

"Just let him go, Ironhide," Ratchet said aloud, sounding bored.

Sam gulped again, clutching the small cargo to his chest in a death grip, as if it might save him from this hell.

"Fine, fine."

Ironhide smirked, a scary sight, and winked at Sam, which just made him shake harder.

"Oh, don't worry Sam, I won't _ever_ hurt my favorite pet. I'll just scold him if need be."

Sam squeaked at that, the word 'pet' reminding him of Megatron's own version of it...Scary.

Ironhide looked up as Bumblebee ran over and clicked at him angrily, carefully grabbing Sam from his black servo.

"What? I was just messin' with him!"

Bumblebee glared at the black mech, and walked off, under the cover of the roof.

Ratchet shook his helm, and then looked around. While their little game had gone on, all the airmen had finally finished their jobs, and the two mechs were now left alone in the pounding rain.

"Ironhide."

"Yeah?"

::Follow me out of view::

::Why?::

Ratchet gave a tug on Ironhide's armor, and walked out in the swirling mist.

Ironhide grinned and followed.


End file.
